WikiLeaks: U.S. Troops Were Yards from Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad Compound in 2008

US forces were stationed just a few hundred yards from Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound in October 2008, according to reports within the WikiLeaks embassy cables.

The revelation that US forces were so close to the world’s most wanted man in 2008 comes after material from the Guantánamo files suggested the US may have received the intelligence that led them to Bin Laden as early as 2008.

The US soldiers were due to perform a routine posting “training the trainers” of Pakistan’s 70,000-strong federal military unit, the Frontier Corps.

Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan Military Academy, the country’s version of Sandhurst in Britain, and trains officers from across the nation. The academy is streets away from where Bin Laden was tracked down and killed.

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Yes, very good. I was waiting for this to start trickling out. The blogosphere must be tripping over itself to publish a catalogue of references to Abottabad in the Wikileaks files.

Bravo!

Liam_McGonagle

Yes, very good. I was waiting for this to start trickling out. The blogosphere must be tripping over itself to publish a catalogue of references to Abottabad in the Wikileaks files.

Bravo!

Anonymous

The reason why there was no trial is because the FBI has admitted to having no evidence of Osama bin Laden’s involvement. The real reason is that the US war pigs who parade as world police need a break from their inability to actually win a war much less stop terrorists as the future will prove. Obama and all the western world leaders are nothing but a front for the international bankers who don’t give a fig about the lives of soldiers much less innocent civilians. I think the real plotters of 911 were the Bush family and their ilk along with the mega rich Saudis. And were is the proof that the target was actually taken out. Sounds like more flaming corporate media pig bull dung. The USA is morally bankrupt. The beer-head football consciousness that permeates our speech and decision making has led US down the road to perdition. We are all murderers now, thanks to the military-corporate complex. There is no forgiveness for our actions, for allowing the chaos money making machine to be the center of our foreign policy. Our leadership has been co-opted by the not so smart intelligence community that is controlled by the ultra-wealthy who wish to reduce the population of the planet to 500 million by any means: nuclear weapons/power, industrial pollution, patented medicines that do more harm than good, privatized schools with hidden agendas, genetically altered food, fluoridated water, etc. There is no prayer to any god that can correct this situation, it is up to each individual to get up off their lazy butt to make things better.

http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

This Osama thing is the best psyop since 9-11. It helps US forget how bad things really are and how corrupt our system has become.

James Miller

Very Good,I was waiting for this

James Miller

Very Good,I was waiting for this

Anonymous

This also goes against the blame they’re trying to push onto Pakistan too. “Being that close they were either incompetent or helping him” an “unnamed” official said this morning (I’m paraphrasing. I can go find the direct quote if you’d like). Guess you gotta say that about the US troops too. Proximity must mean complicity!

quartz99

This also goes against the blame they’re trying to push onto Pakistan too. “Being that close they were either incompetent or helping him” an “unnamed” official said this morning (I’m paraphrasing. I can go find the direct quote if you’d like). Guess you gotta say that about the US troops too. Proximity must mean complicity!

Liam_McGonagle

I think we should give somewhat different weight of responsibility to the occassional, always carefully shepherded visits of a handful of American specialists engaged solely to train Pakistani forces versus the pervasive network of the host country’s fabled intelligence service, who, after all, have never really denied direct responsibility for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I see very little evidence exhonorating Pakistan on this one.

quartz99

different weight, maybe, but when proximity is the main determinant in logic, not really. It may turn out that there are al Qaeda sympathizers within their ranks who helped him (and that seems pretty likely, especially given that they were cut out of the operation), but that’s not the same as the country’s govt. being complicit, if you see the difference, which is what a lot of people are proclaiming. As soon as the news said “Pakistan” everyone started saying “well if he was there they must have known he was there!” Well, maybe. Almost certainly _someone_ did. I think it’s premature to jump to the conclusion that it’s the country as a whole though.

Liam_McGonagle

I still think so. I passed by the cop shop on my drive through town this morning. Does that make me an expert witness to testify to the proper observance of Miranda rights inside? The same weight as the duty officer who clocks 8 hours a day, 5 days a week there?

I guess I’m just emphasizing that the thread of Pakistani official collusion–even if it wasn’t sanctioned through the highest of official channels–CANNOT be ignored. Serious evidence keeps mounting that some significant elements of the Pakistani government see the U.S. as suckers.

Do you think the Sarah Palins of the world will find it easier or more difficult to goad the public into yet another counterproductive if we wait for THEM to break the story?

P.S. Not itending to come off as offensive, but the issues are pretty stark here. Form followed function here.

Liam_McGonagle

I think we should give somewhat different weight of responsibility to the occassional, always carefully shepherded visits of a handful of American specialists engaged solely to train Pakistani forces versus the pervasive network of the host country’s fabled intelligence service, who, after all, have never really denied direct responsibility for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I see very little evidence exhonorating Pakistan on this one.

Anonymous

different weight, maybe, but when proximity is the main determinant in logic, not really. It may turn out that there are al Qaeda sympathizers within their ranks who helped him (and that seems pretty likely, especially given that they were cut out of the operation), but that’s not the same as the country’s govt. being complicit, if you see the difference, which is what a lot of people are proclaiming. As soon as the news said “Pakistan” everyone started saying “well if he was there they must have known he was there!” Well, maybe. Almost certainly _someone_ did. I think it’s premature to jump to the conclusion that it’s the country as a whole though.

Anonymous

I still think so. I passed by the cop shop on my drive through town this morning. Does that make me an expert witness to testify to the proper observance of Miranda rights inside? The same weight as the duty officer who clocks 8 hours a day, 5 days a week there?

I guess I’m just emphasizing that the thread of Pakistani official collusion–even if it wasn’t sanctioned through the highest of official channels–CANNOT be ignored. Serious evidence keeps mounting that some significant elements of the Pakistani government see the U.S. as suckers.